


Dark Sands Sing Strange Songs

by sugarplumScary (Frequently_Tricky_Witch)



Category: The Mummy Returns (2001), The Mummy Series
Genre: Alex is Twenty, Alex is a sneaky little shit, Depending on Egyptian Laws in the 1940s, Enemies to Lovers, Imhotep is Not Amused, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Not Underage, Possessive Behavior, Possible Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 10:49:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6420805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frequently_Tricky_Witch/pseuds/sugarplumScary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twelve years after the brat son of his enemies saved him on a whim, Imhotep has redesigned his life post-Anck-Su-Namen. Putting his experience and magic to use building a reputation in the world of Egyptology has meant asserting a different power and regaining something he lost long before his mummification. As for finding the O'Connell boy underfoot again, Imhotep is less than amused. The fact that Alex is no longer a boy and seems to have his own reasons for being there means that his former captor is toeing the edge of conflicting urges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark Sands Sing Strange Songs

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [From the Shadows, we Grow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5607346) by [Pakeha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pakeha/pseuds/Pakeha). 



Imhotep picked up the supposedly priceless artefact, twisting it to and fro with a look of scorn. Wordlessly, he turned his glare on the dealer, holding his gaze until the man began to quake. “Worthless trinkets.” He flung the ceramic at the wall, the shattered clay falling loudly to the floor. “Don’t take me for a fool.” The other man began to stammer apologies, that he had been assured of its authenticity and would never have brought it to him if he’d known. _Lies_. There were days when he missed the ability to suck the very essence from a body. With disgust, Imhotep turned away. 

 

“Leave”. The man’s frantic footfalls echoed along the corridor, growing fainter but not slower. 

 

“My, my. Just imagine how scared he’d be if he knew who you really were.” A voice, at once familiar and unknown, spoke from the doorway. Ignoring the clench of shame and rage, Imhotep turned towards the voice that carried memories from the past. Yet, in the stead of the young boy he remembered was a man leaning confidently on the frame. The baby fat had gone and the blonde locks had darkened into a a light brown that still shone gold in the light from the courtyard, but the same mischievous grin taunted him from beneath clever eyes. Of course the brat had grown, it was to be expected, even if he himself seemed to have retained an unearthly halt on his years. 

 

“O’Connell.” The word was growled out. Shifting to project an air of disinterest, Imhotep paced to the bar to fix a drink. “Am I to be forever plagued by your kin? If I’d known this, I believe I would have preferred hell.”

 

“Oh don’t be upset. I’m sure you’ll get there eventually.” Alex’s eyes scanned the room. “Nice setup you’ve got here. Having fun playing go between for the museum? What do they call you, a mummy consultant, emphasis on the mummy side of things?” Imhotep felt an urge to strangle the arrogant brat. He tossed back the drink, a concoction that sufficiently managed to recreate the wine he had enjoyed in the days of his early adulthood. 

 

“Since you clearly have no self preservation instinct, might I remind you that I am as capable of stabbing you now as ever.” He poured himself another drink.

 

“Touchy. And here I thought we might have a toast to old times. Adventures, danger, you consistently failing to achieve your goal.” Imhotep wheeled on Alex with a snarl, towering over the young man with violent intent. Yet, Alex simply held his gaze with an impish sneer as he plucked the tumbler from Imhotep’s grip and tossed it back. The flexing motion of the smooth curve of his neck temporarily transfixed the once-mummy before he reclaimed the glass, moving away with an unsettled feeling. Alex shook off the strange burn from the unusual alcohol and lost the smirk. “In all seriousness, I came to see for myself if you really had decided to keep up your little act. You’ve managed to build a reputation in certain circles. It’s hard reconciling the “superbly elite expert on Egyptian antiquity” with the psychotic mummy I remember.”

 

“And, you decided to come play warden to my prison then, make sure I’m not hiding any dark machinations. Seems the act of a hypocrite, to accuse me of artifice when I clearly remember your accent holding a more Anglicised tone before. Or did you naturally lose your mother’s quaint British lilt in order to mimic your father’s crass American mannerisms?” Expecting the boy to leap to the defence of his parents, the bright chuckle from the other man briefly took him aback. 

 

“Point taken. In my defence, I do naturally switch between the two. But, I am guilty on occasion of emphasising my American accent to gain the upper hand. People tend to underestimate you if they buy into the stereotype of loud, violent, unrefined Americans. Saved my life a time or two.” Imhotep felt a strange warmth take residence in his chest at the wicked smile sent his way. Writing it off as the pleasure of winning a battle, even one of wits, he ignored his confusion at his next words.

 

“Come then. If I’m to endure this evaluation of my motives, then I will at least do it in a more comfortable setting. We will retire to my lodgings.” Something passed swiftly in the shaded eyes of his visitor, something strangely vulnerable and at odds with the casual arrogance of the young man’s earlier words. Before Imhotep could define the change, Alex had shed the hesitation and made a dramatic sweep of the arm to indicate his willingness to follow the other man. The walk down the open air corridor was brief and silent, save for the chirping of the courtyard’s birds. The hotel had enough similarities to the open corridors of his past life in the Palace temples to make it oddly comfortable and the museum had been willing to procure him rooms both for private and business use after an unusually embarrassing theft left them in need of his particular brand of archeological services. He had taken advantage of their desire for secrecy, assuring himself a healthy stipend and a residence that fit his tastes. The distance he had placed between his office and his suite was more due to a suspicious nature than any lack of rooms available to him. He unlocked the door to his lounge and stepped aside as Alex entered. His visitor sauntered into the centre of the room, appearing at ease, although Imhotep thought he saw the young man flinch as the lock clicked back into place. Good. His claws were not as clipped as the brat appeared to believe and Imhotep refused to play the caged pet. Let him tremble. Alex twisted back to regard Imhotep with a sly defiance. 

 

“How about that drink?” The slide from rough American drawl into a smooth British glissade took Imhotep by surprise. A stream of light breaking through the window illuminated a face that had been partially hidden before and Imhotep suddenly found himself transported to a different time as he stared into familiar blue eyes. Memories of the last time he had stared into those eyes, of being close enough to note the resemblance of the colour to the blue quartz glaze on the Palace treasures,  rushed through his mind. He could almost feel the heat of the underworld dimension below as he saw Anck-su-namen turn from him, leaving him to die even as the librarian braved falling columns to save her gunslinger.  Remembered his breaking heart and the feeling of despair as he let go. He had been so wrapped up in seeing her betrayal that he hadn’t noticed the conflicted emotions of a young boy, or the calls from the boy’s uncle to stop. He had been ready to descend into tortuous eternity. He hadn’t expected a thin arm to catch him. Imhotep remembered his eyes snapping open in shock as the boy struggled not to be dragged in as well. Piercing blue had stared back at him with the same defiance he saw now. The boy’s uncle had grabbed his legs to anchor him, but the boy had refused to let go even as his parents tried to get him stop. Even as Imhotep himself had angrily demanded release from his grip. The stubborn youth had forced his parents to help raise their enemy from the crevice in order to save their son, his bright eyes searing Imhotep’s memory with the sight of determined superiority. “Hello?” His guest waved a hand in front of Imhotep’s face, dragging him from his ruminations. “Have you escaped to the astral plane to avoid me? Surely I’m not that bad.” Imhotep grabbed the hand with an angry grunt, only to release it as electricity arced between their meeting fingers. He swept away from the boy to regain his composure. _No, not a boy any longer. _The debonair brush of long fringe swept to the side and the defined muscles were proof that the young boy that had looked past the cruelty of his captor to offer him an unsolicited second chance was long gone.__

 

“You are a nuisance and a pest.” Alex feigned mock outrage, strolling to the bar and pouring his own drink.

 

“That is no way to speak to someone who saved your life.” Imhotep closed the distance, taking the tumbler of his best liquor away, replacing it with a glass bottle of spring water and taking the drink for himself.

 

“I did not need your help.”

 

“Really, because it looked to me like you were going to kill yourself over a woman who abandoned you after you went to all the trouble of resurrecting her 3000 years later.” Alex shrugged, taking a swig from the bottled water and wandering towards the open doors that led to the rest of the suite, pausing briefly as he realised that the bedroom lay beyond. Imhotep followed him with the intention of blocking his path. 

 

“You should not have saved me. It was my choice to make.” The boy turned with a cruel twist of his lips.

 

“How does it feel then to have your choice taken away? You never let me choose, always capturing me again, threatening my life, the lives of those I cared about. Well look who came out on top. I chose to fight, to live…and then I made the choice for you.” With a vicious snarl, Imhotep wrapped his hands around the boy’s throat. Yet, instead of the gasp of fear he expected, Alex simply looked at him with clear sharp eyes. Imhotep stepped back, releasing the boy.

 

“You’re no longer afraid of me.”

 

“Yes, well I spent so long living in fear of you that I seem to have adapted. Humans are funny like that, the body only willing to expend a certain amount of energy on a fear before it turns it into something mundane, like breathing in the air. I suppose, now, I _breathe_ _Imhotep._ ”  A rush of heated air churned inside the man as a vision of himself in the darkened lamplit halls of the temple seemed to burn him, as if his blood were the sesame oil that was ignited by lamp flame . He wasn’t shocked to see himself once more dressed in ceremonial robes in the flickering light, but the young man before him was at once out of place and perfect, light golden skin gleaming in the orange glow of fire as he whispered that he _breathed_ him, the offhand teasing turning sultry. Shaking himself away from the thought, Imhotep stepped aside, not sure what that had been, certainly no vision of the past. Perhaps a fantasy, it was not unusual to imagine himself back in the setting of the past. The boy had turned away as well, depositing his drink and sauntering around the bedroom as if he had nothing to fear from his former captor. It was infuriating. Yet, the fire of rage was tinged with something smooth and tinkling as the young man’s fingers trailed along the grain of the wood on the bureau. He continued his perusal, stopping with a hand on the bed’s walnut post and turning back with a smirk. “It must not be too bad living as a mortal. Your knowledge of the ancient scripts should make you invaluable here. You’ve certainly got luxurious accommodations.” Alex swept his hand in an arc to indicate the spacious suite. “Not to mention you haven’t aged a bit. ” Imhotep didn’t acknowledge the comment, too wrapped up in how utterly tame the boy seemed to think he was. He felt like a caged leopard or crocodile with his prey teasing him from beyond the bars. _Enough_. Striding forward, Imhotep grabbed Alex roughly, revelling in the boy’s shocked cry as he lifted him and flung him to the bed, his own body following him down.

 

“Perhaps, it is time for you to learn to fear me once more.” Imhotep cupped the young man’s ridged outline roughly, covering him with the weight of his body. His seated position meant that he had to twist, but Imhotep barely registered any discomfort as he felt power rushing through his veins once more. With a cruel glint, Imhotep covered Alex’s mouth with his own, forcing the man to open under the pressure. The body beneath him shivered with a charming shake before it made a slight aborted thrust upwards into his hand. The keening cry was unexpected. Shocked, Imhotep pulled back to look at the young man. Instead of fear, there was a rosy tinge to his cheeks and a slightly hazy look of discomfort. With amusement, Imhotep squeezed the crotch in his grip. “Your body welcomes me.” Alex looked back defiantly, spitting out a retort.

 

“I’m twenty years old. My body welcomes the wind.” The words were barely spoken before Alex’s whole body curved upwards in a delicious arc, a gasp of pleasure escaping. Imhotep’s hand traced a pattern inside the now opened trousers, smiling.

 

“Perhaps not as eagerly as this.” The young man appeared dazed, trying to prevent his response but failing. The sudden melting of his limbs into the softness of the bed and the low groan struck a match in Imhotep and the former mummy was covering him once again, this time with the strength of passion rather than rage. His caresses made the younger man beneath him quiver and twist as his kiss deepened. Suddenly a thought came. Were the librarian and her gunslinger there as well? A trap, some reason for them to send him to hell after a lengthy test. He pulled back. “Where are they, boy?” The implied _they_ was obvious to both of them. “Don’t tell me you came alone.” Alex looked as if a bucket of cold Nile water had doused his whole body. His eyes shifted away from the interrogating view.

 

“I’m here on a university trip.”

 

“And they let you come back to this place alone?”

 

“They… don’t exactly know I’m here. Officially, I’m visiting a friend.”

 

“Instead you choose to study in the desert. Well, why are you not on this studious excursion now.You thought it wise to visit me, knowing that you are ally-less?”

 

“We get the next week off and the boys went down to the club for drinks”. _And women_ , Alex thought. “It isn’t exactly my favourite venue.”

 

“No, you prefer to mingle with locals. After all, your golden locks let you blend in so well, little Egyptian”. As though he had struck a nerve, Alex turned away briefly, but his gaze returned with a resolute amusement. 

 

“Well, this has been fun as always Imhotep. Now that I’ve done my duty in making sure you’re not up to the old tricks, I’ll be going.” Alex flipped over and grasped the edge of the bed to pull himself to the other side. Before he could swing himself into a seated position, however, Imhotep grabbed his ankle in an iron grip. Alex kicked out backwards with his other foot, only to have the former mummy wrap his fingers around the other ankle and flip him to his back. Keeping both feet pinned to the bed, but only using one to pull the younger man towards himself, Imhotep dragged Alex back to him with a ominous slowness.

 

“I don’t think boys that ignore their parents warnings, deserve to escape the danger they seek.” This final thought was punctuated with their bodies being brought flush at the waist, the younger man’s legs forcefully wrapped around the hips of Imhotep’s seated body. Alex looked at his once-again captor with quickened breathes of shock and, to Imhotep’s delight, subtle fear. 

 

“ _Imhotep”._ Imhotep’s eyes widened. Not fear. Welcoming. His name being whispered as if it was a prayer. With a gnarring growl, Imhotep covered Alex once more, delving into his mouth with a conquering passion. Beneath him, Alex bent and keened, encouraging him. Imhotep became aware that the youth was trying to say something, pulled back enough to let him speak. “ Not.” A rejection. Imhotep refused to accept it, to come this far and take it away. No. He returned to his hungry ministrations. Alex raised his hands to Imhotep’s shoulders, pushing the other man away. Imhotep let him, even as discontent filled him at the knowledge that he would have to stop if he heard the word, would not shame himself further by taking what was not freely given. “Not a boy, anymore.” Certainly not the words Imhotep expected to hear and enough of a shock to allow Alex to flip their position and drag the mummy into a furious kiss. _Wild_. This creature above him was as something born of the Nile. And he was correct. His age made him a man in the eyes of the world, if perhaps a young man. In his own time, the boy would be seen as fully mature, capable of leading armies or kingdoms. Enraptured, Imhotep grasped the young man’s face in his hands dragging the kiss stung lips back to his own. He curled back up, Alex’s body draping over his own with a sensuous boneless-ness. _Why had he not seen this creature’s potential before? Had he been so blinded by his love for Anck-su-namen that he missed more than just her fickle cruelty? How had he missed this gazelle sipping at the water’s edge?_ A smile tilted his lips slightly. _A clever gazelle._ He felt Alex attempt to handcuff his arm to the post and caught the young man’s wrist, twisting abruptly and snapping the cuff closed on Alex’s dominant arm. 

 

“Ah, ah, ah.” Imhotep ticked his finger back and forth as he had done so long ago, but the results this time were infinitely more agreeable as the motion prompted an aroused flush to settle on the younger man’s delicate features. He returned to the rosy flesh before him, kissing up the curving column of Alex’s neck, leaving harsh purple marks like hieroglyphics. Impatient with the barrier to his touch, Imhotep began to peel the clothes from their bodies, stopping only when he realized the issue of removing the fabric with the handcuff still locked. Imhotep simply grasped the arm of Alex’s shirt in his hands and ripped down the seam. Rather than the protests he expected, Imhotep found wide doe eyes and panting breaths entreating him from below. _Exquisite._ Suddenly, everything dropped into place inside him as if he was somehow back in the temple, powerful and sure of his place. He would show this creature that he knew how to worship. Drawing down to the floor, he took the straining cock from its hiding place in the trouser fabric, peeling away the pants and flinging the useless fabric away without a thought. Imhotep bent down and swallowed the length as if he were a starved man, licking and suctioning the delicate rod as Alex thrashed above him. Imhotep ignored the cries, revelled in them, as he put his lips to every inch of his offering. He stroked and licked and nipped until the body above him bowed in a rigid arc and released. “Again.” He returned to his task, sucking at the now flaccid cock. 

 

“No. It’s too much. I can’t again.” Alex protested, twisting to avoid the sharp pleasure pain. Imhotep released him briefly, enough to let him relax. 

 

“You can. You will, for me.” Imhotep pinned Alex’s hips to the bed as he dove back down with manic passion, his lips tingling with the vibrations of the young man’s desperate cry. He took care, working Alex back to arousal and into another crashing release. “Again.” This time the response was non-verbal, a moaning whine. Imhotep took a different approach, bringing Alex to the point of release then squeezing and halting until the edge was not so near. Over and over he brought the young man to a point of ecstasy and denied him passage, glorying in how the young man’s flesh turned feverish and his eyes focused on nothing except his captor in moments of lucid begging, before dissolving into a frenzied dance of tortured passion and pain.  His fingers had drifted further back to play with the tightened opening. Moisture that dripped from Alex’s back down into the crevice was smeared along the puckered hole, and Imhotep’s fingers began to delve into the twitching tunnel. Long fingers capable of great and terrible magic turned their skills towards this untouched place, twisting and pushing, coaxing and widening the entrance to take the slide of a long digit. Then two and three, until the young man was trapped between two places of exquisite pleasure, unable to escape and destined to dance for eternity. Looking up, Imhotep spied the hardened points of Alex’s nipples raised up in streams of sunlight, pert and sensitive to touch, beckoning as he writhed, just as the papyrus on the river banks swayed enticingly in the winds. He released the young man’s cock once more to crawl up his captured godling’s body. He leaned down to the beckoning nipple, flicking his tongue out to tease at the rounded nib. His creature arched into the touch and keened. A mad fire burning in his eyes, Imhotep clamped his teeth around the point in a loose bite, continuing the flicking motion on the trapped nerves and reaching out to worry its twin to the west, as his other hand curled inside Alex’s body.

 

“Please. _Imhotep.”_ Again, his name spoken with such fevered devotion. A string broke in his soul, a beast that had lain dormant rose to claim its offering. He hadn’t been planning to go much further, but now he couldn’t seem to stop. Rising, he pulled his hand from the young man and brought his knee up on the bed. Bending over the young man, he wrapped one hand around his hip, the other resumed stroking briefly as he felt the familiar tingle of his magic divesting them of all remnants of clothing. Lost in a visceral oasis, Alex barely registered a change, his heated skin shuddering under the touch of the unnatural breeze. Imhotep's hand drifted to Alex's lower back, holding his golden hostage at a wanton angle as he surged into him in one harsh thrust. Imhotep knew he must be causing pain, but Alex cried out for more as he began to drag on the overworked cock in his grip once more. “ _Yes_. _Imhotep. Yesss.”_ The young man beneath him arched as he cried out and came, unable to bear further torture. The tight tunnel clenched so powerfully on his own cock, that Imhotep suddenly realised how on edge he had been made by this golden imp. He pulled back in an attempt to calm himself, but the pleasure was too sharp and he drove back in with a feral snarl. The release crashed through him, echoing like the reverberations of a giant gong. Looking down, he saw that Alex had lost consciousness even as his body continued to milk his captor’s cock. Turning towards the handcuff, Imhotep used magic to release the lock. He didn’t normally broadcast the fact that, mortal or not, he retained his magic, as he had in his past life, but he didn’t feel like breaking the warm remnants that lingered. As he withdrew from the young man, Imhotep felt, rather than saw, the rush of liquid leaving Alex’s body, the hot release that had coated his inner walls, a salted honey mahalabiya seeping from between his thighs. He knew he should cleanse them both to avoid uncomfortable mess, but the urge to mark his ownership saw him lay down next to Alex, drawing him close into an unbreakable hold as his magic draped a blanket over their slumbering forms. Tomorrow he would address the complications, but he had no intention of relinquishing this rare being again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is partially inspired by Pakeha's "From the Shadows, we Grow" and Scilera's "This Shadowed Path" after I re-watched the Mummy Returns and kept thinking how future!Alex and Imhotep would make a hell of a team. (That's what I get for watching "The Mummy Returns" on 30 hours no sleep) Anyway, this is (at least in my mind) a slightly devious older Alex who has his own reasons for showing up so I don't see this as non-con, but it probably is dubious at the least. Non-Beta'd so any mistakes are mine.


End file.
